


Sanctuary

by colazitron



Category: One Direction
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-26 11:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colazitron/pseuds/colazitron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Sanctuary... is a word which here means a small, safe place in a troubling world. </i> Niall is Zayn's sanctuary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sanctuary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenpoints](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenpoints/gifts).



**Sanctuary**

 

When he needs a break, a true break, from being Zayn from One Direction, from the constant screams echoing in his ears, from the never-changing interviews, from promo, photo shoots and even from being on stage, he doesn’t reach for his pack of fags. He doesn’t put on his headphones. He doesn’t smoke weed, drink alcohol or eat his body weight in his favourite foods.

When Zayn needs a break, he goes to Niall.

He supposes he’s always done that - well, ever since he’s known Niall, at least - but it’s only been during their first extended stay in the US, opening for Big Time Rush, that he really noticed his own behaviour. Much as he loves Liam, sometimes his earnest enthusiasm for absolutely bloody everything just gets too much (even though he’d never admit as much to Harry, who they all take great pleasure in teasing about not being able to take Liam’s energy in the mornings). Fun as Louis’ escapades usually are at all hours of day and night, sometimes, just sometimes, he feels like he wants to yell in his face and beg him to please just stop for five fucking minutes. And all of Harry’s airy, treacle headspace just gets so, so grating when he’s moody like this, even though he usually loves the jumps and dips and twirls and zig-zags his mind can do.

But Niall. Niall is like a fucking oasis of chill and a quiet, peaceful kind of bliss. Niall is like a walking piece of bloody Nirvana or something and Zayn basks in his presence like a cat in sunshine. He laps it up and lets it run through his veins, chasing away the stress and aggression and loneliness that sit in his muscles and bones like venom. He’ll trail after him like a lost puppy for a couple of hours and usually just end up falling asleep in his hotel bed while Niall sits and does whatever the fuck he does. More often than not the other lads are even there but through the shield of Niall’s comforting presence he can stand them again and drifts off to sleep the last tendrils of negativity away. He should probably thank Niall for that, somehow, but all the fruit baskets in the world wouldn’t be enough and he suspects that if he even tried, Niall would blink at him owlishly and give him a slap on the back. A “don’t worry ‘bout it, mate” and that look that means he doesn’t quite get Zayn.

 

Except it seems there are more things that Zayn hasn’t noticed. At least that’s the conclusion he has to come to after Harry sits down next to him one day, looks over at where Niall is laughing at a (probably embellished) story Louis tells and says,

“He likes you too, you know.”

“What?” Zayn says, because Harry can’t mean that Niall simply likes him. Of course Niall likes him. They’re brothers, the five of them. Well. Mostly.

“Niall. He likes you back. You should make a move, mate.”

Zayn debates telling Harry that he has no idea what he’s talking about but doesn’t really want to insult his intelligence like that. It’s not like Zayn has been trying terribly hard to hide it. There’s not really that much outward difference to how they all treat each other, so why bother? Cuddling Niall mostly just feels a whole lot different than grabbing Louis’ chin to whisper to him.

“You reckon?”

“Yeah. You’ve got some sort of symbiosis shit going on where you’re literally never sick of each other. Even Louis and I don’t do that.”

“You really need to stop making your relationship with Louis your measure for other relationships, Haz. You’re not even dating.”

“No, but you two should be. It’s not like it’d change all that much for us. Except maybe Louis won’t give you love bites anymore.”

“Or maybe he’ll give us more.”

“Yeah, or that.”

They’re quiet for a moment, before Zayn sighs and leans back against the sofa’s backrest.

“I’ll have a think about it, yeah?”

“You do that,” Harry says and pats Zayn’s knee before he gets up, sneaks up on Liam and jumps up onto his back, laughing at Liam when he drops his apple in surprise.

 

Zayn does have a think about it then and now that he’s looking for it, he realises that Niall maybe huddles close to him more often than to the others. He offers to share his food a few times too and that should’ve really tipped Zayn off earlier. What seals the deal though is when one night, with Niall having come over and crashed on his hotel bed while Zayn quietly doodles in a sketch pad Liam’s given him a few days ago so he’d stop drawing on everything else, he realises that when Niall needs a break, he comes to him.

Without thinking too much about it, Zayn leans over and down, propping himself up on an arm next to Niall’s head and presses a light, short kiss to his lips before pulling back again. Niall’s eyes open slowly and study Zayn for a moment. Zayn didn’t really think it’d be awkward, but he finds he’s relieved that it really isn’t anyway. Then Niall leans up to kiss him back before lying back down with a smile and dozing off again. And that’s that.

 

**The End**


End file.
